Ann-Mari Jordens
Published: 1997
Total Pages: 306
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In 1947 Australia began implementing a social policy which was to have profound and irrevocable effects on its history. One of the greatest, but generally unacknowledged, Australian achievements of this century resulted - the harmonious absorption by 1975 of over three million migrants and their children, from an increasingly diverse range of cultures. How was this accomplished? Ann-Mari Jordens has set out to find the answer, combing the Australian Archives to document the work of the federal agency responsible for this massive undertaking. Her findings challenge the conventional view that little was done during these years by Commonwealth governments to assist non-British migrants to settle in Australia. Alien to Citizen is essential reading for all concerned with the current debate about immigration, multiculturalism, citizenship, and the maintenance of social cohesion in Australia's ethnically and culturally diverse society.